This invention relates to louvers of various descriptions designed for ease of field assembly, ease of field custom trimming, ease of field dimension modification, ease of replacement of any single damaged part, and ease of installation.
It is quite common in the engineering and construction field to order louvers for particular purposes, and many such louvers are custom built to a particular wall opening size. More often than not, between the time the louver blueprints and/or construction drawings are approved and the wall opening in a particular building or other such construction is completed, the dimensions of the louver and/or the wall opening are rarely identical and seldom completely compatible. Therefore, a louver or louver assembly fabricated in a factory miles away from the point of installation may not fit the prepared wall opening. Obviously, the latter results in a quandry. Usually, the wall opening is of a heavy construction, either structural steel, concrete or block, and cutting these to form a larger opening is almost out of the question. Even if the opening were framed by wood, the construction might be such as to preclude simply removing the framing and enlarging the size of the wall opening. Obviously, if the opening in the wall can not be changed to accommodate the louver, the louver must be field modified to accommodate the smaller opening. Generally, such field modification requires the disassembly of the louver, cutting components as need be, reassembling the components, and then joining the components to size the louver to now fit the opening or space that exist in the wall. Such field modification, disassembly, reassembly, etc. is extremely expensive and is not regarded by the louver manufacturer as compatible with good construction practice. Hence, the need of a modular or prefabricated louver or louver assembly which permits simple modification to meet variations in size conditions of a wall opening in the field would be highly advantageous both from a manufacturing and an installation standpoint. Thus, a prefabricated or modular louver which can be readily tailored in the field with little elase than those tools which are carried to and used in the field is extremely desirable.
It is also extremely desirable for such prefabricated louvers to be susceptible to shipment in knocked-down condition which lessens the size and bulk of the corresponding assembled counterpart. A prefabricated louver of 4'.times.4'.times.6" is rather large and bulky and presents packaging problems, high freight costs and expensive protective crating to prevent damage. However, if the components of the same size louver could be shipped in knocked-down condition, the size and bulk would be reduced, the cost of packaging would decrease, and freight costs would also lessen. The latter occurs simply because there is a volume penalty involved with most freight rates for shipping large size versus low weight. In other words, the penalty is essentially imposed because one is shipping "air," not mass. Therefore, if the louver assembly can be sent in knock-down form to its installation site, the freight would correspond to the cost of shipping the mass, not the exceedingly higher cost of shipping the volume of a corresponding sized but erected or assembled louver.